from Gergely Orosz | by Gergely Orosz

"What equity is good allocation if I'm joining an European startup?" A hard question to answer, as so much of EU startups are behind US allocation. But I've found an excellent resource by @IndexVentures: a free, online book for stock options for EU entrepreneurs. It's AMAZING. t.co/xsRGDwI8Fb

Seed (less than 10 engineers) for senior engineers at around $6M valuation: around 1%. The higher the valuation & the salary, the lower the ownership, of course. US benchmarks - with higher salaries - below. t.co/H6eCDNj0G8 t.co/FTRuWAshks

At Series A, it's no longer about %, except for execs at this point (see image #1). At Series A, a fair equity for a senior engineer is around 50% of your base salary. Note that at Series A, your base salary should be the market salary. Details: t.co/Vh58H7J9e5 t.co/6h0JDc2fTn

Post-Series A (Series B, C, D, E, F, H...) the grants become more and more competing with the public tech company compensation. Public "Tier 3" companies will allocate $20-100K/year for senior engineers on top of base salary (details: t.co/BHWctPBJLE)

Read the whole handbook here: t.co/MD5Dta3VSm It's a must-read for any EU founder, and if you're getting an offer from an EU startup with worse stock options, it's worth forwarding to them. Big up @IndexVentures for this!